


Taste of Blood

by SubtextEquals



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-30
Updated: 2013-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-16 12:52:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SubtextEquals/pseuds/SubtextEquals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Order business, Sirius is attacked by a creature far worse than any Death Eater: a vampire. Turned into something inhuman, Sirius must escape and find a way to return to what remains of his old life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taste of Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Winter Wolfstar Wank for the prompt "Vampire/Werewolf AU."

Gravel crunched under the soles of Sirius’s shoes as he wandered the country road. He’d been warned that something was attacking the Muggles here and, naturally, he had assumed that Death Eaters were involved. A quick tracking spell revealed nothing as of yet though so he wandered about. The hair prickled on the back of his neck and he couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or one of his other senses. Hand grasped firmly around his wand, he turned to look behind him. There was nothing, just the darkness of the night and a long, winding road.

Sirius let out a breath that was visible in the night air. Turning to continue his walk, he found himself face to face with a looming shadow in the shape of a man. His pale face practically shone in the night and his eyes glowed bright red.

Sirius had only seen a vampire in his Defense Against the Dark Arts books but this one was unmistakable. It was also feral.

“Shit!” Sirius swore as he raised his wand.

The vampire struck first. His frigid hand wrapped around Sirius’s wrist and pointed the wand away just as it let out a spark of fire. With his free hand Sirius threw a punch at the vampire’s face but he might as well have hit a brick wall for all the good it did him. His assailant retaliated by wrapping his hand around Sirius’s neck.

“Do not struggle.” The vampire rasped. “It will only make things harder on you.”

Sirius tried kicking him as he was lifted off the ground but his feet collided with air. He saw golden sparks darting in and out of his vision but he waved his wand anyway.

“Expec—aaagh!”

The vampire had clamped down hard on his wrist, wrenching it hard enough that Sirius both felt and heard a snap. Hot pain blossomed up his arm, engulfing him in agony. And still he kept fighting even though the wand had fallen from his now useless hand. With the other Sirius grabbed at the vampire’s hand, trying to unwrap the fingers from his throat but he was in a vise like grip.

“I’ve been waiting for someone like you.”

“No…” Sirius’s vision was dark. The world was going in and out of focus and he could feel his consciousness slipping away.

He wasn’t ready to die. He couldn’t, especially not because of some stupid mistake. Wandering down an abandoned road alone at night, expecting to run into some Death Eater thugs without ever thinking that something far more dangerous could be lurking in wait.

What had he been thinking? He should have gone with back up. He should have brought James or Remus or hell even Peter would be of use right now. Instead he had gone alone and now he would never see any of them again.

Clichéd as it sounded, his life really did flash before his eyes. He remembered his childhood, growing up in dark halls surrounded by silver engravings of snakes. He remembered chasing his brother and playing in their own fashion. Then he was sorted into Gryffindor and his life truly began. He met the best friends he would ever know. James and Peter and Remus, the young boy who would grow into the man he loved. The man he would never see again.

James and Peter might recover from Sirius’s death but they would both be scarred. They’d go on with their lives though. Peter would find some girl at last and settle down. James and Lily would have the children they’d talked about having. And Sirius would never see them again. They would never know what happened to him and even in their happier moments they would pause and think about the man who was absent from their lives. But at least they would be happy.

Remus, however, had his own estimation of his worth and it was lower than dirt in his eyes, even after all these years. Sirius had tried so hard to disabuse him of that belief and he was coming close, making progress until he could see that Remus half believed him whenever Sirius told the werewolf that he was beautiful.

If Sirius died he would lose that progress. If he died then Remus…

A last surge of strength came to him and with the last air in his lungs he rasped “stupefy!” The spell had such strength that even wandless the vampire flew back and Sirius dropped to the ground.

He landed on his broken wrist but he had no breath to cry out. Instead, he sucked in a pained breath into his lungs and scrambled in his search for his wand. His field of vision was so dark that he could barely see anything and he found his wand more or less by accident. Stumbling to his feet, he nearly fainted at the strain. By sheer determination he kept himself standing. His vision cleared just in time to see the vampire lunging for him.

The fight was swift and brutal. Sirius got in a few spells but they were largely ineffective. The vampire delivered blow after blow to Sirius’s face and when the wizard fell to his knees the last blow to fell him was a kick to the face.

He lay gasping but still writhing, trying to get up.

“It’s been some time since someone’s fought like that.”

To Sirius’s satisfaction, the vampire spoke slowly and with effort. He wiped blood away from his face.

“But it’s over now.” The vampire continued. He nudged Sirius with his foot, rolling him flat onto his back before leaning over the man. “Embrace your new life.” He said and bared his fangs.

\---

Sirius woke in pain and smelling sharply of blood. Every muscle in his body screamed and after several moments Sirius realized that he was crying out. Parts of his body he didn’t know existed stung so keenly he was convinced he had to be dying. He didn’t even register his surroundings. Everything was a haze in the midst of white fire enveloping his body.

“It’s the transformation.” A voice said though Sirius didn’t understand him. “A few short days of pain is a small price to pay for eternity.”

Hands soothed his brow and Sirius reached to grasp them.

“Moony, please…”

Sharp laughter was the last thing Sirius heard as oblivion took him once more.

\---

Sirius drifted in and out of consciousness over the next several days. Sometimes there was a gentle hand pressed to his forehead or shoulder to calm him but usually he woke to nothing at all. However, when the torment finally passed he was not alone.

He sat up and noticed no shadow of pain. He felt strong, whole, born anew. He was changed in some way and he knew that there was a good reason for it, if only he could remember. His mind had not recovered as swiftly as his body and he still shook as though expecting the agony to resume again.

“You can relax. It’s over now.” A shrill voice said.

Contrary to the advice, Sirius tensed and turned. His mind snapped into focus immediately and he remembered. The vampire. The attack. His death.

“Oh God, no.” Sirius looked down at his body and found that he was pale. He raised a hand to his face and found no changes there until he opened his mouth and his fingers probed his fangs. “What have you done?!” He roared, turning to the vampire again. He tried to crawl out of whatever he was in a— _coffin_?!

He’d been in a _coffin_ for all this time? Whoever this vampire was, he was a traditionalist.

“I asked my sire the same thing once, countless centuries ago in a language long since forgotten. He told me the same thing I will tell you now. I have given you a gift, though you may not see it as such now. You will in time.”

For someone as old as the vampire claimed to be, he should have expected Sirius’s attempt to strangle him.

\---

There was a lot the vampire, or Seriamaius as he had introduced himself (which sounded damn pretentious in Sirius’s mind), hadn’t expected. For one, he thought Sirius would show at least some gratitude. He had none, even as days turned into weeks. Seriamaius had to literally beat the idea into Sirius’s head that there was no escaping him and there was certainly no defeating him.

So Sirius bid his time, learned what he could. There were a number of things that he had to adjust to as a vampire. The first was the craving for blood. Seriamaius didn’t trust him enough to take him out hunting as he called it. Instead Seriamaius fed him scraps of his own blood, cutting open his arm with his fangs and letting the blood drip from his body into a goblet. It was disgusting, repulsive, and yet addictive. Just the sight of it had Sirius salivating and the taste… It wasn’t enough, not nearly enough and he found himself asking for more. But when he realized what he had done he shut himself away for as long as Seriamaius let him be.

He also learned about Seriamaius himself. He was an ancient vampire and quite traditional, as most vampires were. Not just in the coffins but in his home (a castle) as well. At some point in his past, Seriamaius had lost his sire, presumably killed by a wizard. Seriamaius himself had no magical powers but what he lacked he more than made up for in strength. But there was a madness to him that was both familiar and strange to Sirius. Familiar, because he had lived for most of his life listening to the ranting of his half-deranged mother. Strange because his mother had never been this powerful or dangerous, nor had she lived for centuries untold. In all that time Seriamaius had forgotten his humanity. Sirius vowed he wouldn’t make the same mistake.

He clung to the memories of his friends. He recalled times spent outdoors in the warm sunlight, basking in the shade of a tree at Hogwarts as they studied, or rather as Remus frantically studied and Peter looked over his shoulder at his notes. He remembered pranks gone wrong and right. He remembered how Peter would surprise them with a particularly cutting or funny remark or a good plan. He remembered James chasing after Lily, winning her over, and wedding her. And he remembered the story of his own love with Remus. He remembered entire nights spent touching and feeling and simply savoring each other, staying up until dawn making love or else just holding one another.

He wondered what they were doing now. Were they still searching for him or had they given up? Were they now mourning his loss? Did they think the Death Eaters had taken him?

Time blurred together in the castle. He had no way of knowing what time or day it was. There were no clocks, not even chimes, and whenever he asked Seriamaius what day it was he laughed and said that time had no meaning to a vampire. Sirius smiled and fought back the urge to beat the truth out of him. Now was not the time to act.

The time to act came later. There were no windows in his room, or in fact very many in the castle at all but he had come to guess the time by Seriamaius’s comings and goings. He had just fed Sirius and the sound of his retreating footsteps echoed down the hall. Sirius waited for what he judged to be a few hours before trying more wandless magic.

He lost track of how many times he cast the spell “alohomora” but each time he was unable to perform the spell adequately. Perhaps he had lost his touch or perhaps there was more to the vampire than met the eye and he had somehow enchanted the lock. Still, there was more than one way to open a door and Sirius had experience picking locks the Muggle way. It had come in handy several times at Hogwarts when he had given his enchanted penknife to one of his friends and set off on his own. He just didn’t expect it to ever save his life, or undeath. Whichever it was now he didn’t care.

He’d found a suitable scrap of metal one day while exploring the castle. Using it as a makeshift lock pick, he set to work on the door. It was well over half an hour before he had it open. He hurried down the corridors, searching for the vampire who had sired him.

Seriamaius’s old fashioned sensibilities made his location obvious. If Sirius were a vampire (and he tried not to remind himself he was a vampire) but if he were a half mad vampire with an overly romantic and Bram Stoker view of himself, he would either live in the highest tower or the basement. He checked the towers and found nothing and that left…

Sirius was unsurprised when he found Seriamaius in a coffin. He was, however, pleasantly surprised to find his wand lying next to him. Rather thoughtful of him, he considered. At least he came in handy one last time.

Sirius raised the wood stake he’d made from breaking a chair. Seriamaius really should have thought twice about what kind of furnishings he had in his residence. One never knew what might happen when he took the wrong person home with him.

Seriamaius’s eyes opened as Sirius plunged the stake down but it was too late for him. The glow to his eyes died but the shocked expression remained until his body decayed into dust.

Sirius took his wand and made his way out of the castle. He knew he should apparate to the house he shared with Remus but he needed to get his bearings first. He also needed to stop shaking.

What he didn’t expect was to run into someone. He was a middle aged man but Sirius didn’t notice much more to him beside that. He didn’t know the color of his eyes or even his hair and he certainly didn’t see the look of concern in his eyes as he stepped closer and asked if Sirius was all right.

Because Sirius could taste blood in the back of his throat, the copper tang was on his tongue in a phantom sensation, taunting him. He could hear the pounding in the other man’s veins as his heart beat faster.

What Sirius did see was the look of terror when the poor man realized that he’d run into something unnatural, something that would be the death of him. He was right on both counts.

\---

When Sirius came to his senses he was covered in blood. The moon was low in the sky and there was a dead body before him. The body of a man he had killed.

Sirius sprang back and the corpse rolled away from him. Heaving, Sirius threw up most of the blood he’d consumed. He pushed blood soaked hands through his hair.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know. He didn’t. Oh Merlin, what had he done?

Sirius did the only thing he could think to do. He turned on his heels. There was a crack and the world around him shifted until he was standing at the door in front of the home he shared with Remus. He pounded on the door.

“Remus? Moony? Please be there, God. Please…”

_What have I done? What have I done? What have I—_

Sirius fell to his knees. His hands slid down the door and he pressed his face against the cold wood, sobbing.

In what felt like moments Sirius heard the lock to the door click open. Sirius leaned back and looked up in time to see Remus come into view. And, to Sirius’s horror, the blood lust returned. He wanted to feed. He wanted to taste. He wanted Remus to hold him in his arms and never let go.

Remus’s eyes widened. Sirius must have looked a sight, what exactly he didn’t know. Vampires had no reflections so he couldn’t see the change in himself beyond his pale skin. He didn’t know that his eyes had changed color, were a faint red now. And aside from those changes was the fact that practically every inch of him was blood stained.

“Sirius.” Remus breathed.

“Remus,” Sirius’s fisted the fabric of Remus’s trousers in his hands. “Help me.”

\---

Sirius was largely nonsensical when Remus dragged him into the home but he sat beside him. When they were both calm enough he stripped Sirius down to his pants, discarding the clothes, and took him to the bathroom to shower. He stayed with him, soothing him with soft words and assurances that everything would be all right and he was safe now.

By the time they were done Sirius was exhausted. Remus had him wait in the bathroom while he made sure that the curtains to all the windows were closed.

That was a mistake. He never should have left Sirius alone, or rather he shouldn’t have left him alone in the bathroom. Sirius’s eyes were drawn to the mirror. Nothing stared back at him, simply the back of the shower curtain. Sirius raised his shaking hands to the mirror.

“No.” He whispered. And then he screamed it. “No!” He thrashed his fists against the mirror, breaking it into fragments that dug into his skin. The pain was there but he didn’t notice it. It was nothing compared to the agony of what he’d lost.

No reflection. No innocence. Just a vampire. A murderer…

“Sirius!” Remus came running back He stepped over broken glass, wincing as it dug into his feet, but otherwise ignoring it. He pulled Sirius into a hug.

“You should let me die.” Sirius sobbed into his shoulder. “Let the sun kill me. I deserve it, Remus.”

“I won’t.” Remus assured him, pressing a kiss to his head. “I love you, Sirius. I can’t lose you.”

“Remus…” Sirius grasped his lover’s arms and pulled away. Staring into his eyes, he forced himself to speak. “I killed someone. I murdered—”

“I know.” Remus reached out and stroked his cheek. “I know, Sirius. You lost control but you’re here with me now. I’m with you and I won’t let that happen again. Sirius, we’ll get through this. I promise.”

“Remus—”

“Listen to me.” For the first time that night Remus’s gaze turned firm. The soothing hand on Sirius’s shoulder moved to grasp the back of his neck.

Remus pressed his forehead to Sirius’s for a moment. “Listen to me,” he repeated at a whisper but then his voice returned to normal as he drew back. “I just spent the past two weeks thinking you were dead. I thought the Death Eaters took you, tortured you. We all thought that you had been murdered. In that time I learned one thing: I never want to live without you. Don’t make me, Sirius. Don’t ask that of me.” Remus took a deep breath. “You’re going to make it through this, Sirius. We are going to make it because I will be there. I’ll be there every step of the way and when you stumble I’ll catch you. I promise.”

“Moony, I’m so afraid.” Sirius’s confession was quiet, voice trembling. “I don’t want to live like this. I don’t—”

“And I don’t want to be a werewolf.” Remus smiled grimly. “But you told me that doesn’t matter.”

“You’ve never killed—”

“I might have once. I would if given the chance. I’m sorry this happened to you, Sirius. I’m so sorry. But I need you.”

“I need you too.” Sirius pressed himself against Remus, let the other man wrap his arms around him and hold him close. “Oh God, Remus. I need you so much. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Remus ran his hands through Sirius’s still damp hair. “I love you. Everything will work out. I promise you.”

“I wish I could believe you.”

Remus closed his eyes and though he didn’t say it, Sirius could feel his response in the way his body trembled.

_Me too._


End file.
